Ticking the box - or not

Today I am kicking myself because I have had to un-publish one of the novels, Fairlyden at War, which I had uploaded to Smashwords. The reason? I forgot to tick a box on Amazon KDP cancelling the book's availability in the Amazon KDP library. I had made it available for 90 days, ending mid August, but I failed to tick a box so it is now available in the Kindle library for another 90 days until November. This means I cannot upload it to Smashwords, or anywhere else until then.

Anyway here is some white heather from my garden in the hope it brings me luck with lots of sales for the other three books in the Fairlyden series. We have had a dreadfully wet summer in S.W. Scotland but my son finished combining the rest of the harvest yesterday. I don't know whether we are preparing for an early winter or not but the winter flowering Viburnum is already covered in pink blossoms. Like me the seasons seem to be a bit topsy turvy.

Linda Mitchelmore, author of To Turn Full Circle, is guest blogger.

Today we welcome Linda Mitchelmore from Devon who is going to tell us something of her writing life.

Can you tell us what made you want to write and how you got your first break?

I began writing when my hearing dropped so badly I could no longer hear music or TV – it was a way of communicating in a way. I could make my characters ‘hear’ which stopped me feeling so isolated.

My first break into the world of print was a short story competition in Woman’s Own. I didn’t get the first prize, but I did get £50 and my story was published. It was the first short story – post leaving school – so it was a wonderful boost to my ego. I often wonder if the winner of that competition went on to be a successful writer, or not.

 What is your favourite mode of working?

Having a deadline works for me! That said, I have two preferred methods. If I’m hand-writing – which is the way I often write short stories – then I can happily write, curled up on the couch while my husband watches TV or listens to music. I then type up the stories from my scribble the next morning. For novels, I write straight on to the computer but, although I don’t like interruptions of the ‘where’s my striped shirt?’ ‘what time’s lunch?’ variety, I do write better if there is someone else in the house.

Are your novels character driven or are you a plotter?

My novels are very definitely character driven. My first line in To Turn Full Circle  (TTFC) is something my father always used to say to me if I left it longer than a week to call in and say hello! It just sort of popped into my head one day when I was thinking about him. He always said it in a jokey way but I thought - what if it was said in a very snide, nasty way? And by whom and to whom? I knew I didn't want Emma in TTFC to say it because she isn't that sort of person. The plot started with a harridan - Mrs. Phipps - saying 'Well, well, well, look what the cat's brought in' to the lovely Emma and went from there really, although I'd decided from the start that Emma would be an orphan....but at that stage the logistics of how she'd come to be in that state hadn't been plotted out.

  What is your work schedule?  How do you relax? What interests do you have other than writing? Do you think it important for a writer to take time off?

I love gardening, but alas this summer it has not looked at its best due to the launch of my début novel when there was much to do by way of book signings and library talks, and getting on with the sequel. But I do love it, and have been on garden tour holidays which have gleaned more than a few short stories as well as more horticultural knowledge. I also like cycling in Brittany along the Nantes-Brest canal…nice and flat, beautiful scenery, and lots of little roads leading off to bars for a cool lager. I do try to find time to see friends – at least once a fortnight I meet up with one of them for coffee or lunch. Not all are writers – in fact I think it’s very important not to get too insular about writing so my non-writing friends are equally as important as the writing ones.

Do you believe writing is a skill anyone can learn? What advice would you give to a new writer? Can you remember what craft tip helped you the most when you were starting out?

I believe anyone’s writing can be improved but there has to be that ‘writing voice’ unique to us all in there somewhere – some who try very hard simply do not have that voice.

A very well-published writer once said to me never lose sight of whose story it is you are telling. What does she want? Who helps her? Who hinders her? How does she achieve her aims – BY DINT OF HER OWN HARD WORK. I am a reader for short story competitions and I’d like a pound for every story I’ve read where the heroine is poor but wins the lottery! – which neatly sums up how not to do it, I think.

. Do you have a critique partner, or share your work with anyone before you submit to an editor?

 I belong to a writing group. Brixham Writers. We are a very small group – just twelve of us – but we are all published. We meet every Thursday and are expected to bring something to read out. This can be work-in-progress or something to the ‘homework’ theme which is set each week. I’m a short story writer, too, so I often use the themes to write a new short story. Some of us will read from a novel-in-progress – a scene here, or a scene there, sometimes a whole chapter. I’m always happy to read out a short story but I tend to keep my novel close to my chest.

 Do you ever suffer from writer’s block? If so, how do you cope with it?

I suffer from lack of a BOSS (Bum On Swivel Seat) sometimes but once I’m sitting down I find I can get back into it easily enough. A trick I’ve devised is – until you need to write THE END – never to stop work at the end of a chapter … always open the next. Never finish a sentence ….just don’t put that full stop …then you’ll always have a pick-up point.

You are a member of the Romantic Novelists Association. In what way has the RNA helped you or your career?

Just joining the RNA’s New Writers’ Scheme has been instrumental to my career. Having to produce a manuscript by the end of August each year was a pretty good ‘whip’ to keep writing. The networking is also second to none. When I was awarded the Katie Fforde Bursary it gave me such encouragement and also the determination to restore the RNA’s faith in me that I could become a published novelist. I’ve also made pretty good use of the membership at The New Cavendish Club …it’s like a home from home now.

Do you enjoy research, and how do you set about it?

TO TURN FULL CIRCLE is the first historical novel I’ve ever written – all my other NWS entries were contemporary so I didn’t need to research things like clothes and vehicles and technology for those. TTFC is set between 1909 and the end of 1911 and I was given access to a whole year’s worth of local newspapers from that period. They were so interesting that the novel was in danger of never being finished – there were so many avenues I could have gone down. And so much I learned. For example….there was a report of an aircraft carrier shipping planes across the channel which surprised me – obviously not an aircraft carrier as we know them today, but all the same….a surprise. I was also intrigued to discover that best beef was 6d a pound and lemons were 1/- a dozen.

I’m now working on the sequel to TTFC and my first draft was to get the plot and the emotions of the story down, and to define my characters. In the second draft I added more social period detail, and in the third draft I’m working on putting in some political detail – although not too much as my writing is very emotion-led.

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Tell us about your latest book, and what inspired you to write it.

TO TURN FULL CIRCLE came about when my husband was researching some family history. He found that a great uncle of his had fished out of Brixham and had owned two fishing boats. One of those boats was lost to the sea. The other was sold on after said great uncle was badly injured in a fishing accident and had to come off the water. It got me thinking…..what happened back then when many fishermen and their families lived in tied cottages if the man died, or was incapacitated and the tied cottage went…..and I took it a step further and made Emma Le Goff a 16 year old orphan.

I beIleve Gone with the Wind is one of your favourite novels.

Yes, it is one of several favourites but I was thrilled when my book was placed next to Margaret Mitchel’s on the shelves in Waterstones.

Thank you Linda, you have raised some interesting points about the life of a writer.

The death of Neil Armstrong - first man on the moon.

Neil Armstrong was the first man to step onto the surface of the moon on 20^th July 1969. He has died at the age of 82, leaving the world with one of the most famous phrases which will go down in history.

“One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

According to those who knew him he was a quiet, humble man in spite of his abilities and achievements, not least of which was being the highly respected commander of Apollo 11.

It is a lovely sentiment which his family have asked for in his memory. Namely when we look up at the moon on a clear night we should remember him and give him a wink. I often look up at the moon and I wonder what he thought when he was back on earth and looking up there. It must have seemed incredible remembering he had actually walked on that distant silver disk which appears to float slowly and gracefully above the clouds. 

Additional Note: About forty years ago Neil Armstrong travelled to Scotland and was made a Freeman of the small town of Langholm, near the Scottish / English Border, the home of his ancestors in the days of the Border Raiders and Reivers. A special pipe tune was composed in his honour called Commander Neil Armstrong's Moon Step 

*****

The following is a little anecdote passed on to me by Myra Adamson and purported to be true.

In case you didn't know this little tidbit of trivia, on July 20 1969, as Commander of the Apollo 11 lunar module, Neil Armstrong was the first person to set foot on the moon. His first words after stepping on to the moon were,

"That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,"

They were televised to earth and heard by millions but just before he re-entered the Lander, he made the enigmatic remark -"Good luck, Mr. Gorsky".

Many people at NASA thought it was a casual remark concerning some rival Soviet cosmonaut. However, upon checking, there was no Gorsky in either the Russian or American space programs.

Over the years, many people questioned Armstrong as to what the – “good luck, Mr. Gorsky' statement meant, but Armstrong always just smiled.

On July 5 1995, in Tampa Bay, Florida, while answering questions following a speech, a reporter brought up the 26-year-old question to Armstrong.

This time he finally responded. Mr. Gorsky had died, so Neil Armstrong felt he could now answer the question.

In 1938, when he was a kid in a small mid-western town, he was playing baseball with a friend in the backyard. His friend hit the ball, which landed in his neighbour's yard by their bedroom window. His neighbours were Mr. and Mrs. Gorsky. As he leaned down to pick up the ball, young Armstrong heard Mrs. Gorsky shouting at Mr. Gorsky. "Sex! You want sex? You'll get sex when the kid next door walks on the moon !"

True story. it broke the place up.

MY EARLY EFFORTS AS A WRITER

Apart from  adventure story which I wrote when I was about eleven and an avid reader of Girls Crystal, Lonely is the Valley is the first book I ever wrote. I have been formatting it ready to add to my collection of other digital books on Amazon and Smashwords.

 

Available from Amazon UK

 It has made me reflect on my early efforts as a writer. The first chapter and synopsis, then written under the pseudonym Lynn Granger, was written for a competition run by Women’s Weekly and judged in conjunction with Woman’s Hour and another magazine for women – I forget which. Mine did not win. I think both editors and publishers must have had more patience in those days because Lynda O’Byrne, fiction editor of Women’s Weekly, took time to write to me and say she had liked my entry and she suggested I finish the novel and send it to Robert Hale for their Rainbow Romance Series. Not many busy editors would do that now so I shall always be grateful to her for helping me to get a foot on the writing ladder. I cringe when I remember how ignorant I was about the writing world. I didn’t know any other writers and had never heard of the RNA or even the Writers’ and Artists’ Year Book.

I was a busy wife and mother. Moving house is upheaval enough but we had moved from one farm to another with loads of alterations to be done, over years, not months. There were no computers then and I was not a trained typist. I wrote by hand then slogged away in secret on my little portable typewriter, complete with correction tape. I sent it to Hale. They sent it back. It was too long for their Rainbow Romance Series. I thought that was a polite rejection and stuffed it away. Six months later I had a letter asking if I had completed the alterations yet and would I send off the manuscript as soon as possible. I don’t think publishers would take time or trouble for that these days, except perhaps for someone famous.

Hopefully I have learned and improved my writing since then. See http://www.novelpointsofview.blogspot.com - a blog which five of us share.

My garden plus a free novel download

This is a woodpecker which I managed to snap from my bedroom window, though even when I am indoors he senses the slightest movement and darts away.

The housemartins are not so shy and continually dart from under the eves of my house, returning year after year. 

When I moved from the farmhouse I was supposed to be retired -except for writing novels of course. I didn't think I would want a vegetable garden with only me to tend it and eat the produce. However I missed the fresh vegeatbles and, being diabetic, they are good for me. Here are some of my vegetables in assorted pots. My runner beans are just off the picture beside a trellis. I like my potatoes in large pots so that I only need to use a few at a time. I am pleased with my leeks, carrots and onions as I use a lot of them for soup in colder weather. The large pot - almost a raised bed - was a re-cylced container which my son cut into sections. Next year I may try another as my cauliflower and broccoli are doing well. I also have three large containers of strawberries so that one is replanted each year in rotation. In the corner of my bordes I have a Victoria plum tree with rhubarb beneath. The blossom was early this year and spoiled by a very cold spell, but I also have a small apple tree and it has set a good crop so far. I have a loganberry and a few raspberries canes, while my conservatory has helped me keep myself in summer tomatoes for the past few years.

The book below is fiction but it gives a good account of farmlife during the first world war.

Family at Fairlyden is free to download from Amazon on Sunday and Monday June 10 & 11th. Follow this link http://www.amazon.co.uk/Family-Fairlyden-Series-ebook/dp/B00845UK30/

Book 4 - Fairlyden at War

This is the fourth and final book in the Fairlyden Series covering three generations of Scottish farmers.
(Originally published by Headline in hard and paper back). They are all available now for downloading from Amazon

FAIRLYDEN AT WAR - blurb

It is the 1930’s with men desperate for work and food. Fairlyden has survived due to Logan’s skill and his wife’s thrift. Their daughter, Kirsty is proud of her father’s achievements but her brother, Luke is afraid of animals and his fear leads to tragedy.

James MacFarlane has spent his first twenty three years learning all he can from Logan Fairly at Fairlyden. So when he chooses to live with his great-uncle at Nithanvale, the Fairly family’s greatest rival, Kirsty feels betrayed. To make matters worse she is jealous of Mary MacFarlane, who is the last of the MacFarlane line, along with her half cousin.

Kirsty’s responsibilities are heavy when the second world war breaks out and they are increased when evacuees arrive at Fairlyden but her sense of humour sees her through and her determination to keep the farm never wavers in the face of
threats.

 http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fairlyden-War-Series-ebook/dp/B00875SY9Y/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=13389http://www.amazon.co.uk/Family-Fairlyden-Series-ebook/dp/B00845UK30/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338989130&sr=1-104987&sr

Book 3 - Family at Fairlyden

I am pleased to say I have now uploaded the third book in the Fairlyden Series.

The Family at Fairlyden – blurb

In 1906, Beth Jamieson, is a little girl of eight, with honey gold curls, blue eyes and the sweetest nature. Her father is Mistress Fairly’s right-hand man and when Nick’s wife dies, Sarah Fairly treats Beth as her own.

Sarah’s daughter Sadie is jealous and does everything she can to prevent the growing relationship between the small girl and Logan, Sadie’s youngest brother: `She’s a labourer’s brat! She’ll never be mistress here! Never!’ she is heard to say. Yet, sharp tongued and vicious though she is, Sadie fails to stop the first childish closeness then, as the years roll by, the encompassing love that draws Logan and Beth together.

Throughout the country, the early years of the century are a time of social change: in London suffragettes chain themselves to railings and the Kaiser visits the King; in the Scottish borders, the Fairlys witness the first motor cars and increasing mechanization on the local farms, while on the far horizons dark clouds of war are massing.

Although Logan would rather breed cows and horses and stay with Beth at Fairlyden, he knows he must fight. As they take their leave beside the burn, one soft autumn day, the lovers cannot foresee the problems, the heartbreak and the joys which the future holds. Or who will inherit Fairlyden.

As the third volume in this magnificent Fairlyden quartet, The Family at Fairlyden takes up the moving love story of Beth and Logan while also chronicling the continuing saga of the Fairly family in this beautiful corner of rural Scotland.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Family-Fairlyden-Series-ebook/dp/B00845UK30/